Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Game 22 - Red Sox

Rangers 16, Red Sox 5
Record: 14-8

I'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome as I toggle furiously between cbs.sportsline.com and the Sons of Sam Horn (SOSH) Game Thread trying to both "watch" the game and see the interaction between Sox fans in the SOSH community. Sox just squandered a golden opportunity, scoring only once after having the bases loaded with no outs, but taking a 4-3 lead in the top of the 3rd.

SOSH is an addictive, elitist, and wildly entertaining Red Sox forum. The denizens are among the most passionate Sox fans I've ever encountered, and they run from brilliant sabermetricians to grizzled old-school baseball fans. The debate on the forum is better than any sports site I've ever encountered, and the participants do not suffer fools gladly - including and especially those in the media. My view of sportswriters and broadcasters has been drastically altered for the worse since I discovered SOSH some 2 years ago. Sports journalists pander to the lowest common denominator, and rare is the exception who passes on the easy target to lend some clarity and thoughtfulness to the subject matter. I read them uncritically until SOSH, where I found a group of people who didn't let sloppy research and biased reporting slide.

Lowe just loaded the bases with nobody out on two walks and a single. Sweet. He's having another terrific outing. And...there's a triple by Carl Everett. Neat. 6-4 Rangers, bottom of the 3rd.

Ugh. 7 runs for the Rangers in the bottom of the 3rd. 10-4 Texas after 3. Why do I bother? I'm going to go stick a fork into my scrotum - it's sure to be more enjoyable than this.

The scrotum forking, as it turns out, was more enjoyable. Texas scored 6 more in the 4th and wound up pasting the Sox. These sorts of games happen all the time, even to good teams, so I'm not really all that concerned about this particular game. I am a bit miffed that they lost two of three to a mediocre Texas team, and that the pitching continues to struggle mightily.

Back on the topic of the media, today brings news that the tension between the Sox and the Boston scribes is so heightened that Nomar went to Grady to discuss it. The Sox have since told the press that they will only answer baseball-related questions. To which Tony Massarotti of the Boston Herald responded - in print:

"Growing more distracted and distrustful than ever before, the Red Sox called a team meeting prior to yesterday's game at The Ballpark in Arlington. During that session, the Sox decided they would heretofore engage reporters only on the topic of baseball.

Given those parameters, here is our first baseball question:

Why, fellas, did you go out and play the game today as if you had your heads rammed up your butts?"

How can the Sox read that crap and possibly believe that the Boston media isn't out to make them look bad? The Boston media seems to work very hard to make themselves part of the story, which simply contradicts the most basic tenet of journalism. It's bad enough that they write crap like this, but when it begins to impact the Sox' concentration and performance, team management should step in and aggressively defend the players.